The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had blamed Indian Railways in its audit report that the food and water served by them to its passengers is unfit for consumption by humans.

The Indian Railways, known for a total of 22.2 million passengers daily, has been blamed for serving ‘food unfit for human consumption’ in a report that CAG submitted on Friday. The CAG report has come up after a joint inspection of 80 trains across 74 stations was done across India.

The report found that unpurified water is being used to make beverages, food is left out in the open, uncovered and unwashed waste bins, and rats and cockroaches at catering units in trains and stations. Here are some key points of the report:

Fruit juices, biscuits and flavoured milk being sold at railway stations were found to be unsuitable for human consumption.

Contaminated food stuff, recycle foodstuffs, expired packages and bottled items, unauthorised brands of water bottles were accepted and offered for sale inside station premises and trains.

It was found that purified water was not available at 21 stations across 11 railways zones. Dirty water was being used for beverages like coffee, tea and soups in 22 trains.

No hand gloves and caps were being used in the kitchen and water used for cooking purposes was not purified at 32 stations across 13 railway zone.

Only 16 base kitchens were located in railway station premises. 115 base kitchens were located outside the railway premises and were not subjected to quality check.

Food infested with flies insects and was found in one of the inspections. Food was not covered to protect from flies insects and dust in three stations. Cockroaches and rats were also seen in pantry cars in trains including Duronto Express.

The CAG report also said that there seemed to be no mechanism to check that waste food was not recycled.

It is also being observed that there is no reduction in the number of complaints over the years and the major share of complaints was related to overcharging and quality issues.